Challenges to the seating of any delegate or alternate shall be in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Credentials Committee. Any challenge to the seating of a delegate or alternate that is not made in conformity with these rules shall be deemed waived.

Upon the request of members representing twenty percent (20%) of the total votes of the Credentials Committee, a minority report shall be prepared for distribution to the Convention delegates and alternates as part of the committee's report.

Now, for the purposes of explaining how the delegations from Michigan & Florida will get seated and allowed to vote, let's say that once all the votes are cast, the delegates elected, and the standing committee members allocated, Hillary Clinton ends up with a majority of the votes (92) on the Credentials Committee. As I stated above, the Credentials Committee is the committee that determines the eligibility of each delegate to vote at the Democratic National Convention. Once the Credentials Committee is fully organized and constituted, Hillary Clinton could instruct her majority on the committee to include a resolution in the Credentials Committee Report that overturns the decision of the Rules & Bylaws Committee for the Democratic National Committee and seats the delegates from Florida and Michigan with full voting privileges.

If that happens, then the next step will be for the full Democratic National Convention to vote on the adoption of the Credentials Committee Report with the resolution that reinstates the voting privileges of the delegates from Michigan and Florida. Interestingly enough, that's the first order of business that the Democratic National Convention delegates will have to take up.

So let's go through this again step by step:

Each state allocates its standing committee members by the result of the statewide primary vote; as a result, Hillary gets a majority of the Credentials Committee members;

Hillary instructs her members of the Credentials Committee to include in the committee's report a resolution that reinstates the voting privileges of the delegations from Michigan & Florida; and

The full Democratic National Convention votes to accept or reject the report of the Credentials Committee. If the Democratic National Convention adopts the Credentials Committee Report, then Florida and Michigan are allowed to vote. If the Convention doesn't, then the Credentials Committee re-convenes and submits a new report to the Convention for its consideration.

The possibility would come if the candidate who won Florida, say Hillary, also held a plurality, but not a majority of delegates. The decision on seating Florida would have to be made by the credentials committee, which is composed 25 people appointed by Howard Dean, and 161 who are chosen according to a formula that reflects -- but isn't identical to -- the outcome of the primaries and caucuses in each state.

So there's a scenario under which Clinton doesn't quite have enough delegates, but her allies gain control of the credentials committee, seat Florida, and push her over the top. Secondarily, it's possible that a minority, pro-Clinton report out of the credentials committee could be taken to the floor (though if Clinton doesn't have enough votes there for the nomination, it's hard to see how she'd have enough to seat Florida).

Not likely, but mathematically possible, among the various unlikely possibilities that lead to a tight delegate fight.

The DNC official floated another, intriguing option, under which Florida would be truly powerful: The state party could still agree to ignore the results of this week's primary, and instead hold some party-sanctioned caucus in March. Then, the DNC would relent, recognize the process and seat the delegates.